Painful Jets WR draft mistake is still being dissected 4 years later

When New York Jets fans look back on their favorite team's ill-fated 2021 NFL Draft class, the conversation almost always starts with Zach Wilson, and rightfully so. The former No. 2 overall pick was a disaster in New York and never lived up to expectations.

But Wilson wasn’t the only costly miss in that class. The decision to draft wide receiver Elijah Moore in the second round has quietly aged almost just as poorly, and the sting of that selection continues to be felt by fans four years later.

A recent article from Bleacher Report's Damian Parson revisited the 2021 draft to highlight the biggest steals entering 2025 training camp. Two of the names featured, Nico Collins and Amon-Ra St. Brown, were both drafted after the Jets took Moore at No. 34 overall.

One has emerged as a top-10 receiver and the engine of Detroit’s offense. The other has become a premier deep threat and a key weapon for C.J. Stroud in Houston. Both were passed on by the Jets in favor of a player who’s now on his third team in four years.

Jets missed on multiple star WRs to draft Elijah Moore in 2021

Moore’s Jets career was a disappointment, and his premature departure came almost as quickly as his supposed breakout. While others from that stacked wide receiver class blossom into stars, the Moore pick continues to look worse with each passing year.

Drafted No. 34 overall in 2021, Moore flashed in his rookie season, finishing with 538 yards and five touchdowns in just 11 games. Unfortunately, things fell apart fast.

By Year 2, Moore had grown frustrated with his role in the offense, especially as rookie Garrett Wilson emerged as the team’s top option. He requested a trade midway through the 2022 season (in the midst of a four-game winning streak), was benched shortly after, and never quite regained his standing with the team.

The Jets shipped him off to Cleveland in 2023, packaging him with a third-round pick to recoup a second-rounder. In two seasons with the Browns, Moore put up modest numbers — 640 yards in 2023, 538 in 2024 — but failed to establish himself as anything more than a complementary piece.

Now, entering his fourth season, Moore finds himself on his third team, signing a one-year prove-it deal with the Buffalo Bills. It’s not exactly the career the Jets envisioned when they made him the second pick in the second round of that 2021 draft.

Meanwhile, the current Jets wide receiver room begins and ends with Garrett Wilson, who has done everything possible to carry the load since arriving in 2022. Behind him, however, there’s no clear long-term No. 2 option.

Veterans like Josh Reynolds and Allen Lazard are competing for the WR2 job opposite Wilson, while young players like rookie Arian Smith, Malachi Corley, and free-agent pickup Tyler Johnson are in the mix for depth spots.

That's where the Moore pick looms large. Adding a high-end talent like Collins or St. Brown alongside Wilson could’ve changed everything. Now, would Collins have become a star without Stroud? Would St. Brown have developed the same way in New York as he did in Detroit? That’s impossible to say.

But it’s hard to imagine either would’ve contributed less than Moore did. The Jets missed an opportunity to build a lethal one-two punch at receiver for the long term. And four years later, they’re still feeling the consequences.

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